Quiet Aspen Grove

After a stunning warm and sunny day yesterday things went south. Rain is coming down in sideway torrents and thunder is cracking overhead; temperature has plummeted. It is nice and cozy inside though and I have Cedar Walton’s “Composer” jazz CD spinning. His amazing piano sets the mood nicely for this weather. All is good. And Stan the dog is cozied up on the couch, with a blanket, relaxed and not too concerned.

As for the photograph, we were looking for Buck Mountain. We were going to check up on glorious balsamroot flowers. We thought we were in the right place even though things were looking rather suspect. We kept getting higher and higher until we realized it couldn’t be the right mountain. But it was great, we probably would have never driven down these roads otherwise.

Not a soul seemed around, and the trees were magnificent. The road kept going but we figured we went far enough when a small grove of aspens showed up in a gully, thriving at the edge of a dark coniferous forest. It was wildflower season at lower elevations but up here the temperature was just beginning to thaw out the landscape and the branches remained bare.

I made several compositions but this was the one I knew would be my favorite. I envisioned it right away as a black and white and it takes me in thought to John Sexton’s fine compositions.

Not sure we’ll see aspens this year. I’ll have to thrive on memories of past journeys….